Daily Times

The five-day anti-polio vaccination campaign has been kicked off in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday with a target of administering drops to 6.5 million children.

The campaign was launched at Emergency Operation Center (EOC) KP by a female journalist who administered drops to a child as Advisor to KP CM on Health, Ehtesham Ali had to rush to his hometown at last moment due to some pressing urgent engagement.

Speaking to media persons, Coordinator EOC KP, Abdul Basit informed that polio vaccination will be carried out in all the districts of the province, except Kurram due to law and order situation there.

In all a total of 42,000 teams of vaccinators will participate in the campaign who will be guarded by around 54000 policemen, Basit told newsmen.

He said in current year, so far 62 cases of polio have been reported in the country out of which 18 are in KP.

Sharing a break-up of 18 polio cases, Abdul Basit said out of these 18 polio infection cases, 16 are reported in Southern districts where access to children is very challenging due to bad law and order situation.

Out of 16 cases in Southern districts, around nine are reported only in Darazanda Tehsil of Dera Ismail Khan because of less coverage of children in the area. He said the cohort of below five years age children in Darazanda Tehsil is around 17,000 who are at risk because the area has missed coverage in around three campaigns in current year.

Responding to a question about number of non-vaccinated children among the polio infected cases, he said serology from blood samples of 11 infected children in KP discovered that four had not developed anti-bodies which mean they are zero dose children. Coordinator EOC admitted that around 60 to 70 thousand children are zero dose in the province because of refusals by parents or missing of new born from essential vaccination.

In order to expand vaccination coverage several steps are being taken including holding of Data Quality Assessment.

Abdul Basit said coverage of data by vaccinator, area incharge and monitoring officers and now tallied to find missing in number of children who should be reached out and covered.

Similarly, the Big Catchup campaign would also be launched by EPI soon after completion of polio vaccination drive to cover the unvaccinated children.

He said despite all these impediments the Health teams are making remarkable contribution by reaching to children in every nook and corner of the province. Coordinator EOC also claimed that Peshawar region and Northern Central KP remained polio free as no case of infection is reported in the current year.

Out of nine sites in Peshawar where environmental samples of polio virus were found, eight have been cleared. Only one site in the provincial metropolis (Peshawar) is showing presence of polio virus in sanitation water, but the immunity of children is strong, preventing them from contracting of the crippling disease, Basit went on to say.

He also expressed the hope of good coverage during current polio vaccination campaign even in snow covered areas due to harsh winter.